Long waiting times, poor education plans and parental dissatisfaction have led inspectors to express "significant concerns" over how Derby is implementing reforms to its special educational needs provision.

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced the biggest educational reforms in a generation for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England.

However, a report by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission found "significant weaknesses" in how Derby is implementing the reforms.

Inspectors investigated the joint working between health, education and social care staff - part of Derby City Council and the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group - in June.

They spoke with parents, children and NHS and council officers to draw up the report.

The Ofsted report into SEND reform in Derby (Image: Derby Telegraph)

The city council and clinical commissioning group said they accept the report's findings, having carried out their own self-evaluation.

Councillor Evonne Williams, city council cabinet member for children and young people, said: “Like most local areas, since the 2014 SEND reforms, we have struggled to keep pace with a significant increase in demand for assessments and resources for children with SEND compounded by the lack of sufficient government funding for these vulnerable children.

“This is an issue not just in Derby but across the country with around 80% of areas inspected in the last 12 months also being required like us to complete a written statement of action. The local area will work hard to bring about the changes required.”

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The Derby SEND Strategic Board must now draw up a "written statement of action" to show how the local area will tackle the weaknesses which have been identified.

The newly-published report says that the local area has made too little progress in implementing the SEND reforms following "frequent changes to leadership in the city council".

It also states that there is "inequality of provision for children and young people with SEND across services in Derby" and while some parents have had positive experiences, "the reverse has been the reality for many".

The inspectors criticised a lack of communication with parents over proposed plans to implement changes to SEND provision.

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They also said that there were "serious weaknesses" in assessing children with SEND for an education, health and care (EHC) plan.

Although Derby met a March 31, 2018 target to convert around 1,500 special needs statements to EHC plans, they have now been criticised for being "poor" and leading to more appeals or mediation.

But the inspectors did identify areas of strength including early years provision in Derby where they say there are "well-established working relationships across the services that identify children with SEND.

They said that the co-location of health visitors and children's centres had helped share information about children quickly and effectively.

There is also praise for the Preparing for Adulthood team, which supports young people into jobs, specialist health visiting services and the Looked After Children's team which evaluates youngsters at a weekly multi-agency meeting.

Not all parents are happy with the plans given to their children (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A joint statement issued on behalf of the the city council and clinical commissioning group said the findings were "welcome".

It continued: "While we’re pleased and reassured that actions already in place across the local area have been recognised as strengths which we can build upon, and inspectors have highlighted the positive outcomes many children with SEND are achieving, we fully recognise this inspection has outlined much work is still needed.

"We’re working tirelessly to successfully make these improvements. Our immediate focus is to produce the written statement of action which will clearly explain how we will tackle the areas of weakness identified in the inspection."

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Dr Steve Lloyd, medical director for NHS Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said that since Derbyshire’s four CCGs became one in April this year it has meant the NHS is able to work much more closely and efficiently with local authority partners in the city.

He said: "Some positive improvements have already been made, as highlighted by the inspectors, and we should be able to see the results of these and build on them with the further extensive work we have planned, which will be fully outlined in the joint action statement being submitted later this year."